The winners of the 2014 BVA U20 Beach Volleyball Balkan Championships in Greece

Thessaloniki, Greece, August 25, 2014 - The gold medals of the 2014 BVA U20 Beach Volleyball Balkan Championships will travel to Turkey and Serbia, after teams from these two countries won the women’s and the men’s finals, respectively, of the event held in the Greek city of Thessaloniki.

In the second round of the 12-team women’s main draw, the Turkish pair of Seda Canli/Merve Nezir lost their first match of the competition, but then fought their way back through the losers’ bracket to end up in the final, where they survived a 54-minute battle against Romania’s Adriana Melniciuc/Ioana Ordean to claim the title after a 2-1 (18-21, 21-19, 15-8) win. The bronze medals went to Greece’s Dimitra Manavi/Ioanna Parisaki, who shut out Turkey’s second pair, Merve Aktas/Irmak Keskin, 2-0 (21-15, 24-22) in the third place match.

The Serbian men’s duo Djorjo Klasnic/Ivan Lozic went through the entire tournament unbeaten to triumph with gold. In the final match of the 11-team main draw, the Serbs shut out Romania’s Lucian Badiceanu/Marius Rosu by 2-0 (21-14, 21-17). Serbia’s second duo, Dragan Milanovic/Vukasin Rajkovic, completed the podium with a 2-1 (21-18, 16-21, 15-3) victory over Moldova’s Evgeniu Popadiuc/Fiodor Majarov in the bronze medal match.

Duos from six BVA member countries – Albania, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Turkey - took part in the 2014 BVA U20 Beach Volleyball Balkan Championships.